Sunday, August 2, 2009

CANAAN Episodes 01-03

Osu minna! I apologize for having delayed CANAAN and NEEDLESS posts for so long... *bows* but to make up for it... here's a CANAAN triple scoop! We'll be covering episodes one to three of CANAAN in this entry, so brace yourself for the epicness!

Before anything else, I would highly recommend that you watch the opening animation. It's full of win and epic!

~Episode one~

Our main character, Canaan, taking not cigarettes, but white candy.

In all honestly, I found the first episode a bit blurry. Seemed like it was more of an introduction of the different characters in the series... also, I think the description in Anime News Network was wrong when it says that the people were gathered in Shibuya, because the setting was in Shanghai and not Shibuya. It was pretty surprising that all characters involved 'know' Japanese. LOL.

The setting is in Shanghai -- now, how the characters met each other is still a mystery at this point. Canaan's first scene was shooting with a rifle, so we all know that she's probably an assasin of some sort (who is major kick-ass!)

Here is Mino(gawa)-san and Maria in the plane that's headed for Shanghai. Mino-san's hunting for a juicy story while Maria was just -- Maria. She reminds me of Code Geass' Shirley for some odd reason -- although lacking in the chest department, in high contrast to a person whose name she technically shares with. LOL. At this point, one can only wonder why she knows of Canaan when they are obviously of different worlds.

Reaction to the sunlight seems to be the cause of death for this person. He also has a weird mark on his hand.

While I was watching, it was noticable that something strange is occuring in Shanghai. There were several people in mascot helmets walking around, and when someone pulled a prank on one of the mascot heads, he went ballistic, hopping around like a mad man. Eventually the man fell to the river and died. The people thought he was dancing -- or pretends that he was dancing and they dance along with him. Reminds me how people in the real world can be very indifferent to other's distress.

At this point, I didn't even know who these characters were and what was the point of their existence. They seemed to be related to the mascot helmet people.

Almost all the characters who were described as "gathered together by chance" were introduced in the episode. I think if one wasn't looking forward to the series, they'd be rather confused and quit after the first episode... then again, it still depends on the people ^^

God, if Liang Qi actually acted more properly and not like a sister complexed person with no manners,

I'll definitely have a crush on her -- then again, her point in the story will be gone. LOL

As for the "baddies" one of them is Liang Qi, who covers as the secretary of the insignificant blonde dude with glasses -- didn't bother to remember his name -- but it seems their actual rank in their actual organization: the Snakes, is the total opposite.

Alphard, the leader of the Snakes, and seemingly the main antagonist of the series.

She's definitely kick-ass too -- although if it wasn't for her midrif, she looks like a man.

Even in the first episode, we were given some epic action scenes, courtesy of Canaan. The first episode was quite successful in reeling me in to look forward to the next episode.

~Episode Two~

We were left hanging in the first episode where Liang Qi was riding the helicopter. She was actually trying to get her sister, Alphard from the custody of the CIA. Seems like Alphard was only waiting for a distraction in order to PWN the guards assigned to her. Liang Qi's sister complex is already seen even before the rescue operation (episode one). Always mentioning "neesama". Seems like she hates Canaan to bits too. Alphard however, is a very cool customer and she chose to ignore Liang Qi. I wonder if they're really sisters.

The scene shifts to the dude with the blonde lady -- I couldn't really recall their names, and I don't think they've been revealed yet... that was a short scene though.

Next scene shifts to Mino-san contemplating about Canaan whom he took pictures of and how she was related to Maria. Then he thinks about how he has ended up with Maria in the first place.

I wonder why her resume picture is just black and white -- saving ink?

Obligatory fanservice. Notice that there's a snake with her there -- related to the Snakes perhaps?

It seems that Maria has had a tough past -- which isn't really seen past her cheerful attitude. She has been infected with a deadly biological weapon called the UA virus.

The flower where the name of the UA virus was derived from. Now some pieces add up together.

Seems that the people who were dying are victims of the UA virus -- which has been said to have a 100% killing rate. The only reason that Maria survived is that her father had developed a medicine that cured her.

From Canaan's dialouge with the megane lady, seems that she's part of an organization that protects those infected with the UA virus.

After exiting Canaan's apartment, the megane lady wonders if she could make Canaan kill herself along with Alphard. That line alone makes me dislike her, a LOT.

The next leg of the episode was more action packed -- so let me give you some screens + descriptions instead.

This grandpa and kid pair has been seen since episode one... what was their motive?

Chasing Maria -- that was my hunch at the time.

Maria manages to hail a cab this way to run away from the crazy grandpa and grandkid, and it so happens they have hailed a crazy taxi driver.

Canaan manages to jump in and save Mino-san and Maria. Maria who's really a big airhead invites Canaan to "come over and play" while the grandpa was shooting bullets at her. LOL.

Awesome action follows, and the end result is a fried grandpa. It was strange that the boy called the grandpa his brother though.

When Maria and Mino-san returned to their hotel room, it was raided and soaked in blood. So they were kicked out.

The last scene for this episode... Nyaaaaaa? It's the mystery blonde lady... I wonder what's with the cat suit though.

~Episode Three~

Following the mystery lady, Mino and Maria have been led to a night club with cosplay and karaoke. A strange mix, as Mino says. I LOLed at Ultimate Gattai.

Once inside, Mino asks the mystery lady for an interview, and he gets a shocking "revelation".

It's quite a shocking revelation indeed. Mino proceeds to ask mystery lady where she got her mark, but he was intercepted by Mystery lady's boyfriend and got kicked out.

The next day, Canaan comes over to play! She seemed like she had a homing device for Maria, since Maria and Mino-san were kicked out of their original hotel room. Again, Mino-san asks for an interview but he was rejected by Canaan. Poor Mino-san.

Canaan and Maria are now in a date over parfaits as they contemplate about their first meeting... Those parfaits are SO drool-worthy.

Afterwards, they went to the amusement park and into the tunnel, thingy... however... they were in for a trap!

The lights went out and Canaan went outside of the trailer, thinking that the enemy is somewhere outside -- but in reality, the enemy was also in the trailer with them. It turns out, it was the boy who lost his grandfather in episode two who made the trap, and so he captured Maria.

It was just in this episode that I actually got to understand Canaan's ability. She's actually a synthesist -- synthesists are special people who get to use all their five senses at once. When Canaan's eyes glow, she can actually "see" different feelings of different people even if they're quite far from her. This ability of hers reminds me of Hunter X Hunter somewhat ^^

When Canaan found Maria, she was alone and tied up with a bomb strapped on her head. Canaan hears the voice of the enemy, but he is nowhere to be seen -- even if she used her ability. The enemy knew that Canaan was having trouble, so he was gloating and suddenly revealed his past -- it's your typical small fry antagonist.

The enemy revealing his past was quite helpful though, it seems that the true nature of the UA virus actually is not a biochemical weapon, but something that was made to create a superhuman army -- and those who die from it are subjects who cannot take the intensity of the strain. Reminds me of Heroes and Full Metal Alchemist XD Of course, this revelation tells us that Canaan was also a test subject of the UA virus.

It turns out that the enemy was a flexible person, and was hiding in a hole on the wall.

Before the confrontation with Canaan, the enemy talked to Maria while strapping the bomb on her head, saying that Canaan would kill him if she knew Maria was in danger. Maria, in Canaan's defense, disagreed fervently. The boy told her that the bomb will not hurt her but if she dared to reveal that to Canaan, he will not hesitate to kill himself-- then, he also said that Maria can only shout three things: "save me", "stay away" and "Canaan" -- otherwise, the boy will also kill himself then.

Knowing this, Maria was very distressed, but she firmly believed that Canaan was a 'normal' girl and that she would not kill anyone -- but as we all can see, Canaan is very capable of killing. I really disliked Maria's naivete, but it is still admirable to see so much good in a person.

In the end, when time was almost up, Canaan shot the boy and killed him. Maria, upon seeing this, was really scared, and when Canaan set her free, she shakily said her thanks. Sadly, Canaan did not only feel the rejection -- she saw it. Saddened that her only friend rejected her, Canaan left Maria.

===

CANAAN is really one of my favorites this season, and I did not regret anticipating it! Episode three ended in a very sad note though... Please stay tuned as I will try my best to post the upcoming episodes soon! *bows*

Edit: as one of the comments before this edit has pointed out, there are quite some mistakes in this entry. I do not claim to have 100% accuracy of my posts, nor do I claim that everything in here is taken from the episodes. Some of them are actually my personal comments while watching the episode(s) so I apologize if some of you are confused with my posting style. If you do have any comments about the post or see any mistakes, feel free to leave a comment. Thank you!

2 comments:

Bakemonogatari is pretty alright too....CANAAN and Bakemonogatari are my favourites this season. BTW "The boy told her that the bomb will not hurt her but if she dared to reveal that to Canaan, he will not hesitate to kill Canaan -- then, he also said that Maria can only shout three things: "save me", "stay away" and "Canaan" -- otherwise, the boy will also kill Canaan then." you got it wrong, he said he'll kill himself.....not just that you got heaps of other things wrong....hope you check the anime out again and do not watch the ones badly subbed or you can simply go learn Japanese.

@Anon: thanks for pointing out that mistake, I guess my head was flying somewhere when I was typing -- will edit that out. Also, I do not claim that my posts are 100% accurate, and some of my comments are what I thought of while actually watching the episode, but I appreciate that you read through it all. I'll do my best to avoid mistakes in the next post.